Page 52 of Sweet Like a Psycho (Secrets of Suburbi 2)

“This is delicious, Violet,” Damien said after he took a sip from his mug.

The way he said it made me feel uncomfortable. Like he wasn’t talking about the hot chocolate at all. Luckily the sound of Zeke’s bus coming down the lane gave me something else to focus on.

The bus slowed to a stop and the doors opened. Zeke was staring at the ground as he started walking down the steps.

A window near the back of the bus squeaked open. “See ya later, Zeke the freak!” one of the kids yelled out the window as Zeke stepped off the bus. “Zeke the freak!” another squeaky little voice yelled. Giggles exploded from inside the bus.

The sound of their laughter made me feel like I couldn’t breathe. God, why did kids have to be such dicks? All I wanted to do was storm up to the bus and unleash hell.

Zeke didn’t even turn to look at who had said it. He just slouched forward even more. The doors closed and the bus started to turn around.

“Zeke?” My voice was so soft that at first I thought he hadn’t heard me.

But then he looked up at me. For a second the sad expression on his face disappeared. Like I was the only one that could make him forget about his crappy day. Then he glanced at Tucker and Damien. He scrunched up his face like he was about to cry and ran straight to the house.

“If you’ll excuse me.” I ran after Zeke without waiting for a response. “Zeke!” I yelled when I opened up the front door. But there was no reason to yell. He was sitting in the foyer with one rain boot off, one on, and his coat and backpack thrown on the floor. His face was tucked into his knees and he was sniffling.

“Hey. Sweetie.” I sat down next to him on the floor and pulled him into my side. For a few minutes I didn’t say anything. I just held him until his tears slowed. “It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.” I ran my hand up and down his back.

He didn’t respond.

“Tell me what happened on the bus today.”

He slowly lifted his tear-stained face. “No one would let me sit with them. The bus driver had to make a kid move so that I’d have a seat all to myself in the front. They yelled Zeke the freak at me the whole way home.”

“And the bus driver didn’t tell them to stop?”

“He did a few times. They didn’t listen. And now Mr. Reed is going to think I’m a freak too. Just like everyone else. And we were friends.”

“There’s no way he’d think that. He’s a grown-up. Grown-ups know better than to listen to dumb kids.”

“But everyone else thinks I’m a freak. He will too.”

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nbsp; “No, he’s your friend. Friends are forever, Zeke.”

“Is he your friend too?”

That question felt loaded. He was basically asking if Tucker would be in his life forever. How could I answer that? Instead, I just nodded and tried to change the subject. “And you know all those kids that pick on you? They’re going to have pimply faces well into their thirties and work for minimum wage the rest of their lives.”

“What’s minimum wage mean?”

“It means they’re stupid and won’t have good jobs. So the joke’s on them because you’ll be rich and successful and have beautiful skin.”

“But being a grown-up is far away. And I don’t want all those things if it means right now has to suck.”

That was a very fair point. “How about I start driving you to school?” The thought of doing that was dreadful. Leaving the house twice a day to face ridicule myself? Awful. But so worth it to save Zeke from one more second of it.

“Really?” He finally looked up at me.

“Really.” I tickled his side and he smiled. “It’ll be fun.”

“Will it make you do that thing?” He tapped my shoulder three times. “I don’t want you to do it if it’ll make you do that thing.”

“We’ll figure it out together, okay, little dude?”

He nodded. “Thanks, Mommy.” He hugged my side and now I tried not to cry.

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